It was another record-breaking year for high school girls wrestling in the San Diego Section as 194 student-athletes from 45 schools competed in last weekend’s sixth annual official section championship tournament at Clairemont High School.
It might have also been a record-breaking year for South County female wrestlers as well as four area mat women won individual championships and a total of nine local female wrestlers qualified for the upcoming state tournament, Feb. 24-25, in Visalia.
“The quality of talent increases every year and this year was no different,” section tournament director Trevor Keifer explained. “Our section continues to grow in quality and numbers.”
That appears to be especially true in South County.
Local champions included:
•Hilltop’s Jasmine Plasencia at 103 pounds.
•San Ysidro’s Isabel Flores at 113 pounds.
•Eastlake’s Isabella Hook at 123 pounds.
•San Ysidro’s Melanie Olivarria at 145 pounds.
Plasencia, Flores and Hook are repeat winners.
The four Metro champions got the job done in dominating fashion. Hook recorded four pins in as many matches while Plasencia had three pins. Flores and Olivarria each had two pins.
Hook and Olivarria each won by a pin in the finals.
Flores is ranked third in the state.
Tough enough
Plasencia received the Outstanding Lightweight Wrestler award for the second consecutive year.
“It feels good,” explained the Hilltop wrestler, who got her start six years ago with the Chula Vista Badgers youth wrestling club. “It feels like I worked hard. It feels like I deserved it.”
The award is presented to the wrestler with the strongest performance during the tournament.
“Each year the competition gets harder, however, there are a few girls in the Metro area who continue to dominate,” Hilltop girls wrestling coach Xavier Plasencia explained.
Jasmine Plasencia is a three-time state meet qualifier. She is 17-6 this season after dominating her opponents with three sub-minute pins in putting together a 4-0 showing at last weekend’s section finals.
The Hilltop wrestler won her first three matches with pin times of 27 seconds, 50 seconds and 41 seconds. She recorded a 14-1 major decision over Brawley’s Ana Cuen in the championship round.
Plasencia, who took second place at the section finals as a freshman, said she is looking forward to competing in the upcoming state finals.
“It’s pretty nerve-racking to know there are other wrestlers who are just as good as you are,” she explained. “It’s a fun experience.”
The Lady Lancer grappler got into the sport from family participation (father and brother).
“I wanted to kick people’s butts,” she said succinctly.
She said her goal is to place at the state meet. If it doesn’t happen this year, she still has her senior year to accomplish that.
Plasencia follows in the footsteps of former Hilltop girls wrestling standout Alyssa Baker, who won three section titles while at Hilltop and was a four-time state qualifier.
Mat attack
The top two competitors in each of the 14 weight classes advanced to the state meet.
Recording runner-up finishes from South County schools were High Tech High Chula Vista’s Samantha Magpusao (108 pounds), Otay Ranch’s Lucero Perez Betancourt (139 pounds), Mar Vista’s Emma Urrutia (162 pounds), Montgomery’s Larisa Vasquez (172 pounds) and Castle Park’s Samantha Stephens (191 pounds).
Place-finishes were awarded to the top four grapplers in each weight class.
South County schools also recorded three third-place finishes and two fourth-place finishes.
Third-place finishers included Olympian’s Yesenia DeGuire (108 pounds), High tech High Chula Vista’s Sarina Kuninaga (113 pounds) and Hilltop’s Amber Plasencia (118 pounds).
Fourth-place finishers included Olympian’s Alexa Downs (133 pounds) and Eastlake’s Sabrin Farha (172 pounds).
That totals 14 area female wrestlers on this year’s section honor roll — or one-fourth of the field. It’s an impressive number.
“We are seeing more and more varsity boys coaches supporting the girls and coaching them at events and that is a big part of the success we are seeing,” Keifer said.
South County has taken a leading role in the section based on the early involvement of coaches and program supporters, including Keifer, who started the original program at Steele Canyon High School, and longtime female wrestling advocate, pairing master and coach Stephanie Matsumoto.
Other influential early organizers include San Pasqual’s Ron Rogers, who helped push the sport forward with Keifer, who now coaches at High Tech High Chula Vista.
With the Sweetwater Union High School District’s recent focus on gender equity and Title IX, there is a feeling that girls wrestling will only continue to prosper in South County schools.
“I feel that the Sweetwater district’s recent embrace of separating funding for boys and girls programs will strengthen the girls programs even more,” Keifer said. “I think the success we have had now is because of the coaches who have believed in the girls and provided opportunities for them.”
North County schools came off the mat with five individual champions: Westview’s Lyric San Nicholas-Quinto (108 pounds), San Pasqual’s Maria Sanchez (118 pounds), Poway’s Caitlyn Lamouree (128 pounds), Westview’s Claire Bjork (139 pounds) and San Pasqual’s Emily Velasquez (172 pounds).
City Conference schools recorded two individual champions: Mission Bay’s Francisca Diaz (191 pounds) and Clairemont’s Stephanie Maldonado (237 pounds).
Maldonado, ranked fourth in the state, improved to 21-1 on the season. She is undefeated in 2017 with a 15-0 record.
Helix Charter’s Destiny Lyng (133 pounds) and Brawley’s Barbara Martinez (152 pounds) also won individual championships.
Westview won the team title by out-pointing Brawley 173-158. In all, six wrestlers successfully defended their section titles.
A full statistical summary for each weight class can be found at www.trackwrestling.com.
San Diego Section Girls Wrestling Finals
Feb. 10-11 at Clairemont High School
103 Pounds
1. Jasmine Plasencia (Hilltop)
2. Ana Cuen (Brawley)
3. Emily Sway (Torrey Pines)
4. Johanna Collins (Calexico)
Championship match: Plasencia won by major decision over Cuen in 14-1
Second place match: Cuen won by rule over Sway
Third place match: Sway won by major decision over Collins 10-1
108 Pounds
1. Lyric San Nicholas-Quinto (Westview)
2. Samantha Magpusao (High Tech High Chula Vista)
3. Yesenia DeGuire (Olympian)
4. Alyssa Bravo (Brawley)
Championship match: San Nicholas-Quinto won by pin over DeGuire in 0:55
Second place match: Magpusao won by pin over DeGuire in 1:39
Third place match: Magpusao won by pin over Bravo in 1:42
113 Pounds
1. Isabel Flores (San Ysidro)
2. Cora Johnson-Woessner (La Costa Canyon)
3. Sarina Kuninaga (High Tech High Chula Vista)
4. Aileen Estrada (Brawley)
Championship match: Flores won by decision over Johnson-Woessner 10-4
Second place match: Johnson-Woessner won by rule over Kuninaga
Third place match: Kuninaga won by pin over Estrada in 4:28
118 Pounds
1. Maria Sanchez (San Pasqual)
2. Victoria Bjork (Westview)
3. Amber Plasencia (Hilltop)
4. Nyah Smallwood (Brawley)
Championship match: Sanchez won by pin over Bjork 3:03
Second place match: Bjork won by rule over Plasencia
Third place match: Plasencia won by pin over Smallwood in 2:43
123 Pounds
1. Isabella Hook (Eastlake)
2. Karamel Nunez-Martinez (Kearny)
3. Sasha Barra (Brawley)
4. Kayla-Maria Santos (Westview)
Championship match: Hook won by pin over Nunez-Martinez in 3:45
Second place match: Nunez-Martinez won by decision over Barra 10-8
Third place match: Barra won by pin over Santos in 1:15
128 Pounds
1. Caitlyn Lamouree (Poway)
2. Anne-Marie Maskalenko (Clairemont)
3. Erika Tolentino (Brawley)
4. Victoria Teodoro-Mackey (Mira Mesa)
Championship match: Lamouree won by pin over Maskalenko in 1:10
Second place match: Maskalenko won by rule over Tolentino
Third place match: Tolentino (Brawley) won by pin over Teodoro-Mackey in 2:25
133 Pounds
1. Destiny Lyng (Helix Charter)
2. Phonisha Pruitt (Lincoln)
3. Kira Satnick (Westview)
4. Alexa Downs (Olympian)
Championship match: Lyng won by pin over Pruitt in 0:54
Second place match: Pruitt won by rule over Satnick
Third place match: Satnick won by pin over Downs in 3:38
139 Pounds
1. Claire Bjork (Westview)
2. Lucero Perez Betancourt (Otay Ranch)
3. Esmeralda Ibarra (San Diego)
4. Cassandra Bravo (Rancho Buena Vista)
Championship match: Bjork won by pin over Ibarra in 0:18
Second place match: Perez Betancourt won by pin over Ibarra in 3:59
Third place match: Perez Betancourt won by pin over Bravo in 1:58
145 Pounds
1. Melanie Olivarria (San Ysidro)
2. Maddie Konopka (La Costa Canyon)
3. Jaelin-Rose Quinto (Westview)
4. Arianna Alvizar (Brawley)
Championship match: Olivarria won by pin over Konopka in 3:04
Second place match: Konopka won by rule over Quinto
Third place match: Quinto won by pin over in 4:38
152 Pounds
1. Barbara Martinez (Brawley)
2. Devin Bartelt (Westview)
3. Belen Merino (San Pasqual)
4. Olivia Poole (Point Loma)
Championship match: Martinez won by pin over Merino in 5:20
Second place match: Bartelt won by pin over Merino in 3:10
Third place match: Bartelt won by in over Poole in 1:46
162 Pounds
1. Emma Urrutia (San Pasqual)
2. Sonia Baniqued (Mar Vista)
3. Stephanie Villafuentes (Calexico)
4. Vanessa Gonzales (Westview)
Championship match: Urrutia won by pin over Baniqued in 5:36
Second place match: Baniqued won by rule over Villafuentes
Third place match: Villafuentes won by pin over Gonzales in 0:44
172 Pounds
1. Emily Velasquez (San Pasqual)
2. Larisa Vasquez (Montgomery)
3. Eleni Sanchez (Steele Canyon)
4. Sabrin Farha (Eastlake)
Championship match: Velasquez won by pin over Vasquez in 2:30
Second place match: Vasquez won bypin over Sanchez in 1:25
Third place match: Sanchez won by pin over Farha in 4:02
191 Pounds
1. Francisca Diaz (Mission Bay)
2. Samantha Stephens (Castle Park)
3. Chloe Owens (Point Loma)
4. Karolina Valenzuela (Brawley)
Championship match: Diaz won by pin over Stephens in 3:07
Second place match: Stephens won by rule over Owens
Third place match: Owens won by pin over in 0:31
237 Pounds
1. Stephanie Maldonado (Clairemont)
2. Kerri Gordon (Mt Miguel)
3. Madlyne Navarro (El Camino)
4. Jackie Valencia (San Pasqual)
Championship match: Maldonado won by decision over Navarro 6-2
Second place match: Gordon won by pin over Navarro in 5:46
Third place match: Gordon won by pin over Valencia in 1:46
